


you love me so hard and I still can't sleep

by ktfics



Category: Dangan Ronpa - All Media Types, New Dangan Ronpa V3: Everyone's New Semester of Killing
Genre: Comfort, F/F, Healing, Post-New Dangan Ronpa V3, vr au
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-05-11
Updated: 2020-05-11
Packaged: 2021-03-03 05:40:23
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,201
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24119653
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ktfics/pseuds/ktfics
Summary: Tenko, Kaede, and Maki do their best to keep themselves together in a small apartment of their own.
Relationships: Akamatsu Kaede/Chabashira Tenko, Akamatsu Kaede/Chabashira Tenko/Harukawa Maki, Akamatsu Kaede/Harukawa Maki, Chabashira Tenko/Harukawa Maki
Comments: 4
Kudos: 60





	you love me so hard and I still can't sleep

**Author's Note:**

  * For [tenkaede](https://archiveofourown.org/users/tenkaede/gifts).



> I love these fucking gorlz!!! If you wanna talk danganronpa, my tumblr is @ktophers!

Maki Harukawa is still not used to the sound of crickets.

There is something almost pervasive about it, nowadays, and Maki finds herself with hunched shoulders, knees drawn up to her chest as she stares intently out their living room window.

She thinks, for a moment, that maybe the crickets are just a ploy, there to trick them into believing they’re out of the game when they are, indeed, still rotting. She thinks, for a moment, that maybe they aren’t a ploy, that the crickets are real and the rotting has slowed but the world still wants them dead all the same.

That option seems a little more accurate.

She closes her eyes, breathes in the scent of the birthday cake candle Akamatsu had cheerily insisted on buying for their apartment, lets that false sense of calm right before a hunt begins wash over her. Her eyes snap back open, chest rising and falling in a practiced, shallow manner, body turned to statue, to guard dog. There is no hunt to engage in right now, of course, but that does not mean Maki is any less aware of her purpose. Of what she was turned into, of what she’s good at.

There may be no blood left to spill but her body is still covered in phantom scars, her hands still best at putting together a crossbow and worst at comfort. At love.

Maki keeps her eyes trained on the window and the night sky stretching before her, filled with all those terrible, limitless possibilities Momota could never shut up about, and she does not think about life, or death, or fear. There is just the rest of the world and the people she will protect. That’s how it’s always been; that’s how Maki likes it best.

As focused as she is, it is impossible not to hear Chabashira’s footsteps pad across the floor towards her. Maki is pretty sure Chabashira has made her entrance intentionally loud anyways, so as not to startle her- though it’s not as if being quiet has ever been the other girl’s forte.

That thought almost, almost, brings a fond smile to Maki’s face before she manages to tamp it down.

“Ah, Harukawa-san!” Tenko greets, and a smile is plainly audible in her voice, “Tenko thought you would still be up. It’s late; you should come to bed.”

Maki shifts, allows her posture to become a little less still, a little more human. It’s an exercise she’s still becoming accustomed to, letting herself relax.

“I’m keeping watch,” Maki protests, but her eyes flicker back to meet Chabashira’s, “You know what happened to Saihara, don’t you?”

A reflexive scowl crosses over Chabashira’s face, her arms crossing at the mention of the boy and what happened to him recently, how a fan had managed to break into his apartment and Yumeno ended up breaking a vase over their head.

“Tenko knows,” she says, voice full of criticism, “And Tenko can’t believe a male forced Yumeno-san to have to protect herself like that. But,” and then her eyes gleam, and Maki tugs on the ends of her twintails at the sight of it, “Tenko is here to protect you! And if all three of us are together, then Harukawa-san can protect Tenko, and we can both protect Akamatsu-san!”

Maki lets out a slow sigh, fingers still tangled in the ends of her hair. “Isn’t that what I’m doing?” she asks, voice as blunt as it ever is, even though she doesn’t quite intend for it to be. 

But Tenko understands.

“Well,” she starts, “Yes, but we can watch each other’s backs better when we’re all in the same room together, right?” Her tone softens. “You don’t have to sleep, Harukawa-san. But it’s okay to rest.”

Maki doesn’t answer, but she slowly allows her limbs to unfold, stops carrying herself like a wounded creature, like someone she’d managed to get her hands on in the life that wasn’t real. Tenko smiles, and reaches out, and takes her hand like it’s something precious, like it isn’t covered in odd scars that don’t even line up with the memories Maki remembers.

Though that, of course, doesn’t mean she didn’t hurt people. It doesn’t mean she isn’t a killer, doesn’t mean she wouldn’t kill again in a heartbeat if someone burst into their apartment right now and threatened the people that Maki has wrapped herself around and promised to care about.

Tenko tugs her towards the bedroom they all share, and Akamatsu is already under the covers, clad in a lilac nightgown that makes Maki’s breath catch in her throat. She is pretending to be asleep, of course, blonde hair spread over the pillows and chest rising and falling a little too easily. None of them can fall asleep that quickly nowadays, and Maki knows what someone faking looks like, had often made rounds in the orphanage to make sure none of the kids were up too late.

Tenko reaches out a hand, but does not touch her quite yet. “Is this alright?” she asks, makes sure Maki is listening, knows she intends to touch.

Maki pauses a moment. “Yes,” she answers, voice once again too brusque, Tenko once again understanding as she helps Maki shrug out of her jacket, makes sure that she will be comfortable even though she refuses to sleep in pajamas, wants to make sure she’s ready to be awake and moving at any hour. Slowly, she toes out of her shoes, and then Akamatsu is yawning, pretending to wake.

“Harukawa-san,” she greets, voice soft, still melodic despite the roughness of almost-sleep, “Come into bed?” And then she’s reaching out, reaching for Maki.

Maki flushes, but does not turn down the invitation to be in the middle tonight. Normally, she sleeps near the door. Normally, she keeps her eyes trained on it, ready to leave at a moment’s notice, but, but-

Tonight, she is going to listen to her partners. Tonight, she is going to allow herself to rest, even as she knows she does not deserve it. Even as she knows she desperately wants to deserve it, wants to be loved and wanted in a world without blood or monsters.

She takes Akamatsu’s hand and crawls into bed, feels the mattress dip beside her as Tenko crawls in afterwards. Their arms settle around her carefully, movements telegraphed so she knows what they are doing, so she knows she has nothing to fear, so she will not be reminded of any of the hands that were invented just to hurt her, and Maki’s eyes almost tear up with the care behind such an action.

But she hasn’t truly cried since she was a child in training, so she blinks back the emotion, stores it away to be analyzed for another time.

“... Thank you,” she says, her voice hoarse before she clears it, not quite looking at either of them. 

It is the closest she can get to “I love you” right now.

“You’re welcome,” Tenko says with a small smile.

“We’re glad you’re with us,” Akamatsu says, hands soft as her fingers curl into Maki’s.

It is the closest they can get to “I love you” right now, too.

**Author's Note:**

> Thank you so much for reading!! Comments and kudos are appreciated!!!


End file.
